Victory crawl: 2Q 2017 takes the city by storm

Derby’s streets and venues were full on Saturday as Derby’s own crawl 2Q Festival took the city by storm for a second year.

Now spanning 10 venues in the city centre nearly 100 bands played on 1 April – with a heavy emphasis on touring bands, there was a light scattering of the local scene on the line-up too.

The Herron Brothers, Star From Ivy, Matt Henshaw, Li Laurent, Imbue, The Fideal Effect and These Wicked Rivers all opened stages for the second year of the festival and throughout the day there were also sets from Sunflower Thieves, Cold Water Souls, Liam Walkerand The Nevison Gang, Babe Punch and Frank. Pet Crow should also have joined that opening slew of local talent but were a late substitution to the disappointment of many.

Spoken word got its own stage in Dubrek with Jamie Thrasivoulou, Sophie Sparham, Rhythmical Mike, and Simon Praxis Jones all on the line up.

Heavily focused on guitar-led music, mainly with an indie slant, the festival drew a crowd from the city and beyond to show that Derby as a cultural and musical city is very much on the up. Filling our local venues and making use of other spaces such as the Silk Mill to attract touring bands, many of which will go on to play bigger festival stages over the summer, has shown a lot of people that Derby can absolutely support music when it wants to.

Early bird tickets are already available for 2Q 2018, which will be held on 7 April 2018.